Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

As everyone knows, Batman was a very pragmatic man who seldom wasted time on daydreams, but that didn't mean he wasn't astute—a good detective always possessed leaps in thinking.

This kind of thinking could help them climb over a dead end in reasoning and discover a whole new world.

However, Batman's personality didn't rely much on this kind of leap in thinking; he preferred meticulous logical deductions because they were solid and allowed for prior preparation.

Overall, Batman was that type of person who had more talent than most and also worked harder than most. He seldom relied on talent alone; he resolved most issues through prior preparation.

Like Batman, Bruce also possessed leaps in thinking, but because he had recovered from his illness, his personality had become quite different from Batman's—he was the type who sought inspiration even when it seemed absent.

This was not because he disliked preparation, but because he found methodical preparation dull.

Just like ordinary people dislike mundane and mindless jobs, some daydreamers constantly think about skipping the lengthy processes of laying a foundation and building a structure and prefer to jump right into imagining interior decoration styles.

Bruce relied on sudden flashes of inspiration, which made his thinking particularly erratic, but his whims were constructive and not conjectural.

The difference lay in the fact that constructive whims were like suddenly wanting to do something, a mindset common among those who intermittently burst with enthusiasm while generally loafing around without purpose.

One day they might want to become a painter, the next a novelist, and then think they could take up extreme sports after that, imagining how they might succeed in these fields—a kind of constructive inspiration.

In their work, such people are suitable for starting projects, usually brimming with ideas.

Take role-playing games for example; these kinds of people might start exploring a library and halfway through decide to raid a store instead, and before they have even finished with the store, get distracted by a nearby residence and decide to check it out.

Whereas conjectural inspiration comes from encountering something and skipping certain necessary reasoning steps to arrive directly at the answer.

For instance, having learned some basic mathematical principles and knowing some foundational formulas, they could suddenly write a correct mathematical equation that never existed before.

Logically, they should be able to derive this equation step-by-step, but they skip the necessary reasoning and let the formula emerge through inspiration.

In their work, these people are better suited for execution; while executing, they encounter and solve problems, which better enables them to generate inspiration.

Take role-playing games as an example again; they are the sort of players who, in the process of investigating a library, spot an old case and suddenly link it to a segment of the main story, thus skipping two important clues to directly point to the truth—faster than the game master could handle.

It was clear that Bruce leaned towards the former type, whereas Batman was closer to the latter.

In the worldview of the Cthulhu Mythos, the latter was more dangerous as this ability to skip necessary steps could lead them to encounter forbidden knowledge they shouldn't touch too swiftly.

Whereas the former, with their plethora of ideas, might jump from one activity to another, thus achieving little in advancing the main plot but being relatively safer.

This was why Shiller was more worried about Batman and not so much about Bruce.

Moreover, in such situations, investigating clues definitely reduced mental health value, and once Batman lost his most prized rationality, there weren't many weapons left to combat these bizarre situations.

Shiller looked out the lighthouse window, where the snow had stopped.

The dense fog was pushed ashore by waves after waves, the upright masts appearing like dry grass on solitary graves, or like rain lines falling from the boundless sky into the eyes of insects caught in sockets, pinning them firmly to the ground, with no escape.

Fleeting lights on the dock dispersed through the fog like whiskey spreading on fabric, rendering everything it touched dim and blurred, like millions of sunsets piled together in one spectacular display.

Batman was hiding beneath an abandoned pier.

It was low tide, so there was a small stretch of land, but from above, it appeared entirely covered by seawater—a perfect hiding spot, but only Batman knew that his time was running out.

Batman had escaped from those monsters; initially, he planned to hold his position and watch how things unfolded, but unfortunately, the monsters didn't seem to intend to bring them aboard but rather wanted to kill them directly.

Batman could tell that these half-human, half-fish creatures selectively killed males, so naturally, Batman would not be on the list of survivors. Escaping was his only way out.

In the earlier clash, since he didn't know the nature of the monsters, he had looked at them several times, which severely impacted his mental state and caused him to miss the opportunity to fight.

However, by now, Batman had grasped the approximate characteristics of the monsters—at all costs, he shouldn't listen, look, or contact them for too long.

Although the conditions were harsh, they were not entirely undefeatable. Some men who were taken down struggled, and a deep diver matched against an adult male human didn't necessarily have an overwhelming advantage.

After all, everyone involved was a bipedal vertebrate, and there wasn't a significant difference in body types. Even if one side had the advantage in explosive strength, if the other side fought desperately, it was hard to fully restrain them with limbs alone.

So, it essentially takes two Deep Divers to subdue a crazed adult human male and take him away from the house.

In this case, it wasn't difficult for Batman to escape. He took advantage of their next attempt to apprehend someone, ambushing one of the Deep Divers, knocking him to the ground, and dodging the Trident thrown at him, as he dashed out of the house at top speed.

But he hadn't anticipated that the capabilities of the Deep Divers were stronger than he had thought. The one who wasn't knocked down let out a shriek, and that alone almost blew Batman's mind apart.

His vision instantly turned blood-red, and he completely lost the ability to concentrate. As he stumbled forward, he was tackled down by another Deep Diver coming to help.

But his Strength and Constitution Points were high, and he managed to fight off the attacks of the two Deep Divers, kicking one down and escaping.

That was indeed a very risky battle, but what was even more perilous was that once Batman escaped, he realized there were no skills on his skill list that could directly restore mental health value.

He obviously knew that a warm home, delicious food, and proper rest could slightly restore mental health value.

But the problem was if his mental health value couldn't be restored, he couldn't leave the dock area, and naturally, he couldn't find a place to rest. To leave the dock, his mind couldn't remain in this chaos. He had to find a way to regain his sanity.

This turned into an unsolvable loop. Batman hid under the pier for quite a while and saw no signs of a natural recovery in his mental health value.

On the contrary, possibly because he was in a cold, damp environment and was still bleeding, his physical strength was nearly depleted, and his vision started getting increasingly blurred, giving him headaches almost unbearable to bear.

What made Batman even more desperate was that the negative emotions surged like raging waves, continuously assaulting the walls of his willpower. He had never felt such clear, intense feelings of anger, resentment, and sadness in his life.

These emotions, apparently triggered by a special power, had no actual cause but were bluntly terrifying. With Batman's current state, he couldn't completely ignore them, and the negative emotions wreaked havoc in his mind like a migrating herd of beasts.

Batman had thought of doing something to change his predicament but found himself in a hopeless situation. Losing control was a taste he rarely experienced. It came suddenly, and he was clearly unprepared.

Now, he didn't have many cards left to play. His still-strong, though not severely damaged, body was one. But without his tactical mind, facing monsters that were both more numerous and stronger than him, relying solely on brute strength gave him no chance of winning.

He also had three Skill Points remaining, which was his best hope for a turnaround because he could max out a skill with these points, and reaching full level could transform the skill.

The best choice, of course, was a skill to restore the mental health value, but unfortunately, there wasn't any. Batman's injuries weren't severe, and he didn't need to exchange them for first aid skills.

Some skills seemed too remote to solve the immediate crisis, like Shooting Mastery. If he had a sniper rifle right now, the level 3 mastery could allow him to shoot with perfect accuracy and carve out a path of blood, but unfortunately, he didn't have a gun.

Stealth skill might be a good option—maybe he could sneak away—but stealth required concentrated attention and constant adjustments according to external situations. His brain was too muddled for that now. Making a wrong decision would spell utter defeat and thus wasn't safe.

Even the typically decisive Batman hesitated.

"Transcendent, are you still there?" Batman tried to calm his boiling mind as much as possible, asking as calmly as he could.

"I'm here. It looks like you're not doing very well, but I really can't help you much. Have you decided which skill to choose?"

"Do you have any recommendations?"

"Um..."

After a brief silence, the Transcendent said, "I don't, but someone suggested you go for Spiritual Analysis."

"What?"

The genuine confusion in Batman's tone was evident, and the Transcendent repeated, "An old friend of yours suggested you go for Spiritual Analysis."

"May I ask why?"

"Oh, it seems you don't know yet." The Transcendent said as if he had just remembered, "Mastering Spiritual Analysis actually means giving you Shiller's talent."

"It wasn't originally meant to actually give you the talent; it was more a way to show you the answer through that form. But Arrogant tested it on Bruce, and it turns out it can directly create a mental connection, letting you experience the real Mental Analysis Talent."

Batman fell silent.

"However, I must warn you, Bruce couldn't use this talent at all after receiving it; he has been screaming in his mind for me to turn it off, so I had to consider this skill nullified."

Batman remembered something he had seen before—dreamlike, bizarre, confusing, blood intertwined like a blooming poppy, living people growing fishtails.

Clearly, this wasn't a normal solution, more like fighting poison with poison.

But at this point, what other choice did he have?