Dinner, as always, was a large portion of roasted meat and sweet vegetable soup prepared by Natasha and Steve. Steve had previously hunted a deer in the woods, Matt had caught some fish, and Natasha had found some unspoiled potatoes in the warehouse. These, combined with freshly picked berries and mushrooms, as well as butter left by the original owner of the cabin, made several large pots of steaming dishes.
When entering and leaving the game, the physical state will not be reset, so they all decided to act cautiously to avoid arbitrary injuries. So far, they have been quite successful. Apart from a minor scrape that Steve suffered while saving someone, the physical state of the others has been quite good.
However, high-calorie and richly flavored food can make people more spirited, so as soon as the meal was served, everyone couldn't wait to dig in.
"Peter should at least have come back for this meal." Stark said after biting into a pancake, "Even if he needs to go out to learn, there's no hurry right now. Does he expect that pitch-black guy to provide him with a warm place to stay and delicious food? He would definitely make the camp look like a prison."
"Stop complaining." Natasha placed the last pot of food on the table, sat in her place, and sighed, "You're just unhappy that your kid has followed another tycoon."
"Don't make Peter sound like a money-hungry person; he's not like that at all." Stark raised his voice, "He is a very affectionate and loyal child; I'm just worried Batman will mistreat him."
"And speaking of which, what's the need to learn those so-called investigative skills?" Stark mumbled while chewing the food in his mouth, "I don't know these things either but I live just fine, don't I?"
Then he continued to grumble, "It's not that I have anything against Nick, but he always seems to want to make Spider-Man an all-round agent. They are so young, do they really need to learn everything before they turn thirty? He hasn't even participated in a basketball game, they should be learning how to enjoy life more."
"Do you know how strong his sense of responsibility is?" Steve said while cutting a pancake with a knife, "A strong sense of responsibility for a certain cause will like a ghost which describes your life. It haunts every corner of your life, follows you like a shadow, and there is no escape from it. It constantly pushes you to fulfill it."
"Not everyone is born with so much like you. If we want to fulfill our mission and ideals, we have to strive while we still have the strength. Peter knows what he wants, and of course, we should support and help him."
"I'm not saying I won't support him, but you don't know what kind of person Batman is." Stark sighed lightly, "I know I don't have the right to sympathize with him, and he doesn't need anyone's sympathy, but when he was in my mind, I saw a small part of his past."
"He indeed has a big family." Stark shook his head lightly, "But it's not like the Avengers, a group that unites for ideals. They all have their own share of personal suffering, and more so, they stick together for warmth."
"The others in the Batman family are very dependent on and trusting of Batman. Sometimes I think it'd be nice if Peter depended on me like that, but I think if that were the case, I'd definitely try to drive him away, just like Jarvis, they need to have their own lives."
"Having Jarvis leaving, might be the best decision you made in your life so far." Matt stood up to ladle a spoonful of soup. Natasha held his bowl from the bottom. Matt nodded in thanks to her and said, "I heard he's already trying to win over his future father-in-law, which will undoubtedly be a great challenge in his life."
Stark laughed. He seemed pleased and said, "I knew he was a good kid. Wanda is an excellent girl; Erik would no longer have a chance to mock me as a shell of iron."
Natasha turned her head to look at Shiller who was engrossed in his meal. She could sense that Shiller was in a bad mood, so she took the initiative to say, "Doctor, don't you intend to give Jarvis some advice? Magneto is not that easy to handle."
"Well," sighed Shiller.
"Okay, doctor, stop sighing. You knew this day would come sooner or later." Natasha took another pancake for him and said, "That's what you get for frying fish. If worst comes to worst, let your symbiont change your appearance for you."
"They are criticizing me." Shiller sighed, "They say it's all my fault for being too radical, leaving them with no fun to watch."
"They?" Stark looked puzzled.
Natasha used both hands to gesture the shape of a tower. Starkn finally realized that Shiller was referring to his other personalities, so Stark immediately changed the topic and said, "You can't blame yourself for this. As Natasha said, this day would inevitably come. You can't expect to remain unknown forever."
"Instead, it's because your other personalities are too distinctive that make people remember you as soon as they see you. If it were only you, people would just think you're a psychologist with a high charging rate."
Shiller looked at him gratefully and asked, "So, can I raise my price a bit more?"
"No way." Stark took a sip of soup and said, "You know this trick won't work. I won't fall for it again."
Natasha poured soup onto the pancake, pointed the water glass toward Steve. He got up and poured water for her, and then he said, "You might want to consider Natasha's suggestion, a change in appearance might just solve the problem."
"Actually, I didn't want to resort to this in the first place." Shiller sighed again after a while, "They forced me into this."
Just as he finished speaking, there was a "knock knock knock" at the door. Steve, who was just standing by the door, walked over and opened it, finding a familiar figure standing outside.
As the door opened, Owen walked in.
"What's the matter, Shiller? Why did you rush me here? The Joker and Batman are in the middle of a fierce fight over there."
Shiller glanced at Owen, then looked around, noticing that everyone else was eating their own food without showing any surprise at Owen's arrival.
"What are you looking at me for?" Stark looked up from his soup bowl, turned to Shiller and said, "Don't tell me you're still expecting me to be dumbfounded and stuttering like when I first heard about your plan?"
"Oh, dear Lord, Doctor, is this whole game another great plan of yours that you've come up with? I'm really surprised," Stark said sarcastically, waving his hands around.
The next second, he resumed his calm demeanor, rolled his eyes, and continued to pick the cinnamon out of his soup.
Steve got slippers for Owen, then washed his hands and brought a cup of water to Natasha. He placed it on the table and told Shiller, "Although I know it's pointless, and even if I say it ten thousand times you'll not listen, I still hope you'll inform us next time, because even if you don't, we won't be surprised anymore."
"Oh God, is there any disaster worse than this?" Shiller also exaggeratedly exclaimed.
Owen had just sat down when there was another knock at the door. Steve, who had gone to fetch Owen's utensils, walked to the door and opened it again. This time, a blonde man that no one recognized was standing outside the door.
"Lucifer, you're here." Owen looked back at Lucifer and said.
The blond man called Lucifer waved, greeted everyone, and came and sat down. Shiller took a sip of water and introduced the two men across from him, "This is Owen, the Master and Creator of the Battleworld, and the Archangel Lucifer."
The others weren't too surprised that Owen was the Transcendent, given his high-profile presence on the auditorium stage. Anyone who had been to the auditorium could guess that he was the organizer, but Lucifer's title was somewhat surprising.
"Archangel? Are you the lead singer of some college rock band?" Stark looked at Lucifer with a hint of surprise.
Lucifer, accustomed to such doubts, "swiped" his hand and a blinding Holy Light filled the room. Three pairs of massive wings sprang from his back. Voices from the beyond echoed around, and the Holy Spring flowed from behind him, surrounded by dancing flowers.
"It seems that humans only recognize one image of an angel." Lucifer said somewhat helplessly, "Sadly, the same goes for the newly born angels. Once I went to Heaven in a motorbike suit for work, and almost got kicked out."
"Wait a minute." Natasha seemed genuinely surprised, she looked at Lucifer and said, "You can't really be Lucifer, the fallen angel from the legends, can you?"
"He's no longer a fallen angel." Shiller pointed to Lucifer and said, "He has returned to Heaven and become the first light of creation once again."
"Speaking of which." Lucifer looked at Shiller with some reproach, "What bad idea did you come up with back then? I actually believed your nonsense and returned to Heaven just to annoy Gabriel."
"After I got back, I remembered why I ran out in the first place. Do you know how annoying Michael is? And Uriel, I don't understand what's so great about appearances. What's wrong with me dyeing my hair black?"
"Wasn't he stationed in Eden before?" Shiller asked, knowing something about the situation in Heaven, "How did he return to the Holy City?"
"Because God is not there, the Holy City needs more hands." Lucifer sighed, "The angels on duty said that God seems to have found Gabriel, but Gabriel refuses to return."
"That meddler Michael wanted me to persuade them, but he didn't think about how awkward it would be for me to go."
Everyone felt a peculiar sensation listening to these Biblical figures chat about their personal lives—it felt like Heaven was not too different from their workplaces: a bunch of annoying people and a heap of troublesome matters.
"Let me get this straight." Stark finished his water and asked, "So does this mean that my prayers for the accuracy of my experimental data can actually be heard by God?"
"Of course not, Heaven has a message center. Such prayers are usually categorized by the new-born angels as 'you'd do better on your own', and they usually don't reach God's ears."
Stark gave a snort of laughter.
"Back to the point." Lucifer took the water cup from Steve, nodded to him, and asked, "Wasn't the game going really well? Why did you call us here?"
"You call this going well?" Shiller said, quite dissatisfied, "Didn't you see that they're all avoiding me?"
Lucifer laughed a bit maliciously, then said, "Who can you blame for that? When God inspires and helps people in the human world, he knows how to assume different forms. You, with the same personality and always wearing the same clothes—a fool would remember you."
Owen nodded and said, "I also don't understand why you are unwilling to change your appearance. Those frauds—I mean, your friends who share your hobby of deception—use magic to alter their appearances, which is a necessary deception skill."
But Shiller sighed and said, "Remember? I am playing an ordinary man."