Chapter 3193: The Detective Will Die (Seven)

"Damn it! You didn't tell me I had to analyze it myself!" Bruce cursed the Transcendent in his mind, but the Transcendent did not make a sound, and he knew he couldn't rely on him for this step.

Suddenly, he had an idea and asked, "Has Professor Shearer chosen this skill?"

"No, he can't choose it," the Transcendent replied.

"So does that mean he can't perform spiritual analysis now?"

"Theoretically, that's correct."

"Then he wouldn't know if what I'm saying is right or wrong?"

"That's possible," the Transcendent answered.

"Is he asking you if I can't perform spiritual analysis now?" Professor Shearer also asked the Transcendent.

"Yes, I told him you can't. You shouldn't be able to, right?"

Professor Shearer tried to focus, but the usual noisy distractions that used to surround his ears and mind were gone, and he could only say, "Right now, I indeed can't feel anything."

"Then you can only rely on him."

"That's not without reason."

The Transcendent was surprised at how easily Professor Shearer agreed, but clearly, the professor had his own plans. He said to Bruce, "Go ahead, Dr. Wayne."

The term "Dr. Wayne" made Bruce's hair stand on end, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that. He carefully observed the woman's condition and then said, "She is extremely panicked, fear has made her mentally disturbed, but this fear doesn't stem entirely from the gruesome realities she faced; there's also a part mixed with her own imaginations."

"From her behavior, it's apparent she believes that the thing she fears is intangible and insubstantial, and that even the gun in her hand can't counter it, leading to an even deeper despair…"

Bruce said a lot, and surprisingly, Professor Shearer listened attentively. When Bruce finished, everyone looked toward Professor Shearer.

Professor Shearer's profession prevented him from casually critiquing another professional doctor's conclusions, but he could still think about it in his mind.

Professor Shearer didn't rush to make a judgment on Bruce's analysis; instead, he began piecing the whole situation together.

The owner of the diary was most likely the corpse in the kitchen, he was the starting point of all clues. After noticing something strange in the village, he went to investigate and called the detective over as the situation worsened, leading to both of them dying in the cabin.

Their presence here was normal enough, though it seemed the detective wasn't killed inside the cabin, but he definitely had interactions with the owner of the diary, so the clues were connected.

But where did this woman come from?

The diary's owner didn't mention her, nor did the detective leave any clues about her. She appeared very abruptly in the cabin, and in a state of madness, no information could be extracted from her.

Professor Shearer knew that the Transcendent wouldn't start introducing fillers at this stage; everything he set here, from the corpses to the props in the room, must be useful, and so was this woman.

Since she couldn't communicate, there was no way to gain her trust through interrogation or by revealing their identities to get clues from her.

But just before, in the previous fight, they had gained skill points, and each person could choose a skill. In other games, after obtaining skills in beginner tutorial stages, typically some monsters would be introduced for players to test out their skills, illustrating how to use the skills.

This woman was very likely the "monster" meant for trying out skills.

This didn't imply that she was controlled by a monster but was part of the game system's guide for players to gradually adapt to the gameplay.

Bruce had acquired the spiritual analysis skill; thus, he could choose to use the spiritual analysis skill to try to obtain clues from the woman, and similarly, other people could use other skills to pass this stage.

Given that the recent combat had already taught them how to utilize physical force, this stage was likely meant for them to use non-physical skills to gather clues.

Unfortunately, the real expert in spiritual analysis couldn't analyze, and the person who had chosen the spiritual analysis skill wasn't doing it right.

Bruce's spiritual analysis was distinctive; under normal circumstances, it perfectly avoided the correct answer, leading to a conclusion that was strikingly opposite to the intended spiritual analysis with his astonishing behavioral analysis skills.

Thus, his spiritual analysis conclusion must be interpreted in the reverse—the woman wasn't actually frightened.

When someone is extremely frightened, they grasp any weapon nearby as tightly as possible. They may know rationally that firearms are useless, but if they're sufficiently scared, they'd utilize anything capable of attacking, so it wouldn't be strange if the woman had fired the gun in fear.

The woman's body language also had no issue, crouching in the corner, back against the wall, hands holding the gun due to fear, constantly aiming, and firing two shots: one at the glass and one at the curtain beside it.

Thus, from a behavioral standpoint, the conclusion that she was fearful was quite plausible.

But since Bruce had analyzed it this way, there must be something off with it.

Following this line of reasoning, Professor Shearer thought in reverse, assuming the woman wasn't scared at all, then why would she pretend to be frightened?

Was fear effective against monsters?

Professor Shearer denied that conclusion. Human fear, indeed, was a fascinating emotion; he had envisaged that if there were monsters that consumed fear, whether it would be good or bad.

However, the creature in the village called the Wandering was not of this type. Setting aside the detective's hint which didn't mention such a remote and tranquil village having much fear; if it really were attracted by fear, it should appear at scenes of natural disasters and not here.

Moreover, if the woman wasn't truly afraid, could the monster not differentiate? Surely her skills in spiritual analysis couldn't match Bruce's.

After excluding the possibility that the woman was pretending to be scared to attract the monster, there was only one other possibility left; she was acting scared to draw them in.

They had made quite a racket downstairs, despite their brief time there, from fixing doors to kicking corpses - if the woman had been upstairs all along, she certainly would have noticed someone had come.

Professor Shearer understood why she wouldn't dare go down rashly—in a world with monsters, it was hard to know whether those who arrived were humans or spirits, so attracting them upstairs to wait for them was a good strategy.

And pretending to be insane now could also be a chance for her to observe this group and judge whether there were any monsters among them; this logic was also plausible.

However, what puzzled Professor Shearer was whether it was wise to waste two bullets in this stage?

He didn't believe there was much in the way of supplies in this small village; bullets for an old revolver, generally heirlooms from one's parents, were hard to come by - having about a dozen was already pretty good.

The first bullet breaking the glass could create noise, letting people know there was someone upstairs, which was somewhat reasonable. But the second bullet hitting the curtain was completely pointless; was it necessary to waste such precious resources just to confuse them?

As Professor Shearer pondered, Night Owl drew his gun and aimed it at the woman's head.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Answer my questions truthfully!" Night Owl slowly approached with the gun pointed.

The woman seemed to remain unresponsive, immobile as she continuously muttered to herself while holding the revolver.

Threats weren't effective? That was interesting...

Professor Shearer gave Primary Universe Batman a look. Primary Universe Batman gestured to stop Night Owl, who was continuing forward, and Professor Shearer stepped forward, speaking in the most soothing voice possible.

"Madam, I am a Father from a nearby town. Are you alright? Can you hear me speaking?"

While speaking, he internally asked the Transcendent, "Can I use my intrinsic Soothing Soul skill on her?"

"Yes, but think carefully; the skill's cooldown is two battles. Are you sure you want to use it on her?"

"Yes," Professor Shearer confirmed.

The next second, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a Bible, and began to recite softly; everyone in the room felt a serene and tranquil atmosphere envelop them.

The woman's eyes gradually focused, and the moment her expression normalized, she stared intensely into Professor Shearer's eyes and said:

"He's here!"

Bang!

The woman shot herself in the head with the revolver, spattering blood and brain matter on the wall, her body slowly slumping to one side.

Everyone fell silent at this outcome. Only Professor Shearer seemed to realize something. He scanned the group and finally fixed his gaze on Greed, saying, "I think we can examine the body."

Greed quickly understood, being a character with relatively high agility, searching the body might yield more clues. So, he stepped forward, knelt on the ground, and began examining the woman's body.

Besides the revolver, there wasn't much on her, except for a simple silver necklace around her neck, with a diamond-shaped pendant that featured what appeared to be a rose pattern.

He then found a small notebook in a pocket on the inner side of her trench coat.

Greed frowned upon opening it, as it was the type of notebook suitable for jotting down notes—it was palm-sized and filled with dense writing; he, too lazy to read, simply tossed it to Professor Shearer.

"Should we handle the body somehow?" asked the Pale Knight, the last to enter. He paused then added, "I respect the dead, but I'm very worried she might come back to life."

"I'm worried about the opposite," Joker crouched next to the body and said. "If she doesn't react, that's really bad."

Primary Universe Batman rarely agreed with Joker, but they were in good condition now, not afraid of a fight; what they lacked most were clues and elements for growth.

If this body could also move, the ensuing battle might at least yield some skill points and might, like the previous body, provide some clues.

While everyone focused on the body, Professor Shearer found an important clue in the diary.

This woman named Madeline had been a clergy member of the Church who retired due to injury a few years ago, and she was a researcher specializing in strange phenomena.

Her purpose here was to investigate a peculiar monster, the Wandering, that hadn't been seen in over 30 years.