Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"It's balanced," the Transcendent replied. "There are no particularly low stats; inspiration is somewhat high."

"Is a high inspiration bad?"

"It means you'll be more likely to notice the bizarre, which will cause your mental health value to drop faster. However, the good news is that your will is also high, which means your mental health value cap is higher, sort of balancing it out."

"How many points do I have to allocate?"

"30 points."

Shiller repeated the number to himself and did some calculations, only to find it not to be a lot since there were 10 attributes in total, meaning on average, each attribute would only get an additional 3 points.

Of course, he wouldn't distribute them so evenly. First off, he was somewhat dissatisfied with Physical Strength. Although clergy might not require the same level of physical strength as some laborers, isn't 3 a bit too low?

And then there was the other lowest stat, Luck. He really wasn't that lucky to begin with, but having come to participate in the instance, to still be unlucky would mean he was here for nothing, right?

After some thought, Shiller decided to increase Physical Strength to 7, Body Type to 6, and considering the likely need for combat, both Strength and Intelligence to 10. That left him with 13 free attribute points.

Shiller wasn't sure what use Appearance might have. He speculated there could be situations requiring seduction, but he wasn't Natasha, and even with a high Appearance, he wouldn't know these Agent skills, so he only allocated one point, bringing it to 6.

Dexterity was probably important, Shiller thought, because finding clues might involve dexterity-related checks, and lockpicking was a very important skill, so he raised Dexterity to 9.

His inspiration and will were both relatively high. Recalling the Transcendent's words, he didn't touch inspiration further but added two points to Will, bringing it to 8.

Now he had 7 points left.

Education and Luck were both important. Shiller really didn't want to be muted in every sentence he spoke. After asking the Transcendent, he learned that an Education attribute of 8 would be considered a higher education level, ensuring everyday speech wouldn't be an issue. So Shiller allocated 3 points to Education, reaching 8.

The last 4 points then went to Luck, reaching 7. While still not very high, it was acceptable.

Shiller's final attributes were as follows:

Physical Strength 7, Body Type 6, Strength 10, Intelligence 10, Dexterity 9, Appearance 6, Inspiration 7, Will 6, Education 8, and Luck 7.

"Does everyone start with the same total number of attribute points?" Shiller asked.

"No," the Transcendent replied.

"Is my total number considered high?"

"Uh, average. It's 47 points in total. A total that doesn't exceed 50 is considered medium."

"That means some of my teammates have higher totals."

"Yes, but I cannot tell you their specific values."

"What's the highest it can be?"

"It won't exceed 60 points," the Transcendent said. "A lot depends on the profession you are randomly assigned. Some professions have exceptionally high points in certain areas. For example, if he is a strong man, he might start with 9 points in Body Type."

Shiller nodded. In his view, the profession he randomly got was fairly balanced, but he preferred it that way; he didn't want to have any stats as low as 1, which would require spending a lot of free attribute points to compensate.

"What's my blood volume and mental health value?"

"You'll have to check that yourself once you enter the game."

"Check myself? Is there a health bar?"

"There is no specific health bar, but there will be noticeable effects as these two values decrease, and with each reduction, you'll subjectively feel pain. You can use that as an indicator of how much blood you have left."

"Pretty strict," Shiller murmured softly, "but I like it."

"It is indeed a new attempt," the Transcendent said. "With more and more superheroes starting to ponder if they could still be heroes without everything they have, we have created this role-playing instance."

Shiller chuckled, "Only heroes would ponder such a question."

"Ready to start the game?" the Transcendent asked.

"Play the opening animation one more time for me—I mean that voice clip, then let me into the game."

The Transcendent replayed the voice clip, and Shiller's blurry vision finally began to clear.

And then, as if struck by a heavy blow.

"Uh..."

He bit his lip hard to suppress a cry of pain, yet he indeed felt as if his head had been hammered.

Because there was a corpse lying in front of him.

Now Shiller understood what the Transcendent meant by "noticeable effects" when the values decreased.

Shiller's vision was a sea of red, and his head throbbed as if it were about to explode. It took a few seconds to recover slightly.

"Is this for real?" Shiller thought, merely looking at a corpse that had been killed in an unusual way was this painful, and this broken game still had a combat section?

Shiller couldn't control his body as he fell backward, sitting on the ground, and then he quickly realized there were a few other people around him in a very similar condition.

By the reflection in the window glass, Shiller found that he was still himself, at least in his own vision, with no change in appearance, and in his vision, these people were also acquaintances.

The only two standing in the field were both Batman.

Shiller recognized the stronger one at a glance; it should be the Primary Universe Batman.

The other was interesting. His appearance wasn't Bruce Wayne, but he had some resemblance to Bruce Wayne, looked older than Bruce, and the indifference in his eyes made him seem not like an ordinary Batman.

Night Owl?

The rest, like him, sitting on the ground, one unsurprisingly had the same face as him, that was Greed.

Shiller didn't want to look at the Shiller next to Greed, but he had to, because this guy peculiarly wore a white lab coat, that was Bruce.

Suddenly, Shiller had a very bad hunch, didn't the Transcendent just say that someone drew the psychiatrist profession?

It couldn't be Bruce, right???

Shiller decided to take another look at the corpse. Not wanting to look at Bruce was one thing, but it would be even better if the corpse could reduce his mental health value to nothing and then take him away.

The other two lying on the ground, one was the Joker, but his expression was very special, not as dark as the other Jokers, and he had an elegant quality, which made Shiller suspect he was the Pale Knight.

The other one was still the Joker, but also an old acquaintance, Heath Ugly from the Beihan Family.

Greed seemed to have just regained his senses, he looked across, and then exclaimed, "Arrogant?!"

Obviously, he hadn't discussed the issue of teammates with the Transcendent. Although his words were muted, Shiller still made out what he wanted to say by reading his lips.

Does that mean they could communicate through lip reading?

"Stop thinking about it," the voice of the Transcendent rang in Shiller's ear, "If other people see you constantly mouthing words, they'll think you're crazy and you could miss a lot of clues."

All right, Shiller thought, there was some sense to that.

But the biggest issue now obviously wasn't that he and Greed were placed into the same instance, but that Bruce, Night Owl, and the Primary Universe Batman were placed into the same instance.

When these three came to their senses, unsurprisingly, a classic moment occurred where three Spider-Men pointed at each other.

But their words were also muted.

Shiller wasn't very interested in what they said, so he didn't look at their lips, but from the expressive and diverse expressions of the two Jokers beside him, he could guess what they said.

After a while, they also realized that such out-of-character speech couldn't be made, so they could only stand there and stare blankly.

When Shiller stood up, he found that he wasn't wearing his black suit, but a costume that looked somewhat like a Father's, but with some gold patterns, and everyone else was also wearing outfits that corresponded to their respective professions.

A glance at Shiller was enough to deduce that the most physically strong Primary Universe Batman seemed to be a Hunter, as he had a fur coat, a thick piece of fur around his waist, a bow on his back, and was holding a Shotgun.

Night Owl was probably a police officer, wearing a uniform with a hat he held in his hand, and a pistol hung at his waist.

The presence of Shotguns and pistols proved two things, first, most of the combat in this game probably couldn't be resolved with firearms, and second, finding bullets was likely their main theme in searching later, because guns were not necessarily useful against monsters, but they were more effective than anything else for threatening humans.

The one suspected to be the Pale Knight Joker was wearing a suit, adorned with glasses, and judging from the style of the suit, he was either in finance or a lawyer.

The real Joker, however, wore a paint-stained apron, with pencil and charcoal dust on his hands, seemingly an artist.

Greed was the most special; he wore climbing gear and held a camera as if he were a tourist.

Through these people's attire, Shiller could ascertain one thing, that the game's setting was modern.

First, the police uniform worn by Night Owl was clearly modern, although it must have been fabricated by combining the features of police uniforms from many countries, it was definitely not something out of a Middle Ages law enforcement team's clothing.

The pistol hanging on him was also obviously a modern firearm, looking similar to standard equipment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Bruce and the Pale Knight need not be mentioned, they were both wearing modern styles of doctor's and lawyer's attire.

Greed was the most straightforward, his climbing gear looked like a well-known brand's kit, not something the people of the Middle Ages could create.

A modern setting for a bizarre instance? Shiller finally got a bit interested; he really couldn't imagine how, with the presence of modern firearms, these anomalies could still exist.

But considering the pain he had just undergone from a single glance at the corpse, it wasn't impossible, because this thing was more likely a spiritual attack, which human firearms might not reach.

Shiller grew more grateful that he had chosen the Soul Calmer profession, if he had chosen the Judge instead, he might not really have been able to hit the monsters.

Everyone was sizing each other up, and Shiller felt he should take charge of the situation, but suddenly everyone's gaze fell on him and Greed.

Batman's expression was as if he had seen a ghost.