His reasoning was very scrutinizing. Firstly, the organizer said there was cursing allowed, but did not specify how to cast a curse. The biggest question was how to choose the victim.
Currently, the teams have not met. Without knowing who your opponents are, how do you choose the target of your curse? There must be some kind of mechanism, right?
Secondly, there is no display count after obtaining a totem pillar fragment. There must be somewhere to check how many fragments you own, right?
Batman himself is an extremely precise and scientific person. His thinking is very rational and he instinctively despises chaos, preferring more orderly speculations.
The rules given by the organizer are too vague, To Batman, it seemed like they hadn't said anything at all. Batman interpreted this as needing to be discovered by himself, so naturally, when he found clues, he thought this completed the rules.
Batman did not expect that in this world there really was someone as broad-thinking as Shiller.
Shiller speculated the same thing as Batman, but he didn't choose to build a nuclear bomb first, but to forge a launch well.
Or more accurately, Shiller is the kind of person who prefers watching others stuffing bombs into a dummy well than obtaining the bomb themselves. In short, he's a lunatic.
The city itself is not large, the contestants who were not restricted in strength moved fast. It didn't take long for Bruce to find another magic array.
This time, the array was drawn on the wall, and it was more complex and larger, the paint slightly dried but not fully set.
Bruce immediately took out the Totem Pillar Fragment he had obtained. His comparison speed was about the same as Batman's, but their thinking was completely different.
Bruce had knowledge of the mystic arts.
He quickly drew and scribbled on the sandy ground of the ruins with the steel pipe in his hand, and after not too long, he stopped. He took another glance at the magic array and showed a thoughtful expression.
Undeniably, the text and symbols above are meaningful, possibly a variant of modern text, and these ancient texts usually represent various symbols with mystical meanings.
Bruce initially deduced that the first layer of text on the outer circle might be some kind of prayer, through the inner circle text and the largest symbol in the center, it could be an offering of some sort of power.
Therefore, this symbol in the center might be the key to the array. What it signifies could be related to the function of the totem pillar.
Just as Bruce thought of this, a flash of light sparked behind him. Bruce quickly looked back to see a figure transitioning from transparent to substantial.
It was a black-haired green-eyed young man, dressed in extravagant robes with a gleaming magic wand in his hands. The gemstone on the wand still had an unextinguished magical glow.
"The dense fog here weakens my spell, but as you can see, I am a mage. You can call me Loki."
"Loki?" Bruce squinted slightly, he recognized the design on Loki's robe right away. "Norse god?"
"Prince of Asgard."
"You don't quite match the description in the myths."
"Sounds like you know quite a bit about mythology." Loki gave Bruce a smile and said, "You see this magic array, what do you think?"
"Why should I tell you?" Bruce crossed his arms and replied, "In Norse mythology, Loki is known as the God of Mischief, who knows if this is your true face?"
Loki laughed again, gently stroking the staff in his hand, he said, "I have no true face, or I have a million faces, but it doesn't matter, I can give you what you want."
"You know what I want?"
"You're trying to decipher this magic array." Loki turned to look at the huge magic array on the wall and said, "And I just happen to be a mage."
"But you're not a mage of this cosmos." Bruce took a step forward, staring at Loki, "All the knowledge you possess is worthless here because they belong to two different systems."
"But there are commonalities. You're also using this to get information, aren't you?" Loki lowered his gaze to the patterns drawn by Bruce on the sandy ground.
Bruce sighed in his heart, he didn't expect that there would be mages who could turn invisible among the participants, let alone one who had been following him. Otherwise, he would not have written down his thought process.
"With all due respect, friend, I only discovered you about a minute ago and started following you." Loki took out his own totem pillar fragment, flipped it in his hand, and said, "Give me a piece of the fragment, and I'll tell you my guess. Deal?"
"Don't treat me like a sucker."
"Alright, you seem like a smart man." Loki pointed to the upper body of his staff, "The location of the next totem pillar fragment won't be revealed that fast, but we may be able to team up and take others'."
Loki looked at Bruce and said, "Your appearance is very fitting as bait. You draw their attention, and I'll sneak up behind them."
"Are you a hunter?"
"Of course, as you know, I am the God of Mischief, ambush is my forte."
"Apologies, so am I. However, if you wish to cooperate, I can temporarily put up a façade of your priest for you," said Bruce.
"That's exactly my intention," Loki nodded, "Because of my image, most people view me as a sacrificial figure, so I need a bait that looks more innocent."
"Why not yourself?"
"As I mentioned, I'm adept at ambushing from the shadows. Invisibility is a quite handy skill, don't you think?"
Bruce stared at his face for a while. Loki met his gaze fearlessly. After a dozen or so seconds, Bruce lightly nodded, "Deal. Tell me your thoughts."
"To show my sincerity, I will tell you the most useful information first." Loki turned around and stared at the central text of the large magic array, "Look there, you must have noticed it. That's the key. I can tell you this text means 'curse'."
"How did you know this?"
"You are correct in saying that the magic systems in my cosmos, your cosmos, and the cosmos we currently inhabit are distinct, but in my cosmos, there are also many different magic systems."
"They all use different symbolic texts, different means of casting spells, and different magical effects. Do you know what they all have in common?"
After a pause, Bruce said, "...Energy."
Loki looked at Bruce with slight surprise, "You have a deeper understanding of magic than I thought. You seem older than you appear, are you a part of the God Clan? Or are you another type of immortal species?"
"Sort of."
Loki did not pay attention to this half-hearted answer and returned his gaze to the magic array, "Energy is the root of both science and magic, the basic principles of a magic array are comparable to a scientific machine."
"Some magic arrays are used for power, some for conduction, some for storage, and some for output. They can be combined into a larger magic array to perform more complex operations, just like vehicles and spacecraft."
Bruce expressed some surprise, "The God Clan also study science?"
"It is humans who have a narrow understanding of science," said Loki with a deep undertone. "You think creating energy out of thin air isn't scientific, but that's actually just science on another plane, with fixed principles that can be reproduced and utilized rationally. Whether you call it magic or anything else, it's the same as the science you understand."
Loki's hand flashed again, and a ball of energy appeared in his hand. He said, "This is called divine power, the God Clan can naturally gather similar energy from the universe and use it, but in the God Clan's view this is entirely scientific, just like humans using their five fingers to grasp something."
"Back to the topic." Loki sighed and stared at the rune, "Unlike the simplification and miniaturization trend in the development of human technology, the development in the magic realm usually progresses from simple to complicated."
"This is fundamentally because races utilizing magic tech wish to collect as much energy as possible and as efficiently as possible from the universe. The more energy collection components integrated into the magic array, the more complex it becomes, and the more complex, the more it can do. It is the expression of technological advancement in magic."
"The reason the same size equipment cannot output more power like technological development is because the power output from each rune and symbol is not something humans can decide, but is chosen by Gods, or the corresponding types of energy rule creatures."
Bruce involuntarily nodded, he deeply understood this point, as he had been crafting runes in Heaven for several months. The meaning and energy provided by each rune were decided by the angels, having nothing to do with humans.
"So in this way, if the church wants to acquire more power, it has to use more runes. The more it develops, the more rune combinations it discovers that don't result in errors. The magic array then naturally becomes more and more complex."
"This pattern here is an evident example. It integrates many parts that collect energy, which are then all directed to the central text through another part."
Loki looked down at the totem shard in his hand again, "So many energy collection parts, where did the energy come from then?"
Bruce also looked at the shard in his hand; anyone with functioning eyes could see that the totem pillar fragments and the magic array use the same text and pattern.
But the paint didn't even dry yet.
"Here's another solid proof." Loki chuckled, "Don't forget, it's because we arrived here that this rule was created; thus it cannot possibly be a product left from ancient civilizations."
Then he turned his head to look at the street in the distance, "I guess this totem pillar and the magic array are both remnants from an ancient civilization forgotten by current civilization, I'm afraid we might find more such clues in the city."
"Does this have anything to do with the fog?" Bruce walked up beside Loki, turned his head toward him, and said, "Don't tell me you didn't think about it; the key to victoriously beating the game is probably the danger within the thick fog."
"I have made this speculation too, but there's too little evidence at present," Loki touched the totem Fragment with his thumb, "But at least now we know that when we gather all the fragments, we should bring them here to the magic array, only then can the energy on the totem fragment be extracted and poured into the designated contestant."
"Will it kill him?"
"Probably," Loki also looked back at Bruce, "But don't tell me you didn't think about it, this energy might be used for other things."
As they looked into each other's eyes they both saw the ambition and desire in the other's eyes. Playing by the rules is never their first choice. Breaking the norms and holding the initiative in their own hands is.
The two who had already determined the direction of their exploration turned around and walked away without any hesitation. If one were to look up from the magic array, they would see Shiller, standing on the roof of the building, watching the departing figures of Loki and Bruce, and revealing a faint smile.
The theater was in an uproar.